🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <483e0335@news2.actrix.gen.nz>,
~misfit~ <misfit61nz@hooya.com.au> wrote:
>Somewhere on teh intarweb "Greg Vilardi" typed:
>> In article <483c9700@news2.actrix.gen.nz>,
>> ~misfit~ <misfit61nz@hooya.com.au> wrote:
>>> Somewhere on teh intarweb "Greg Vilardi" typed:
>>>> In article <483a4e00$1@news2.actrix.gen.nz>,
>>>> ~misfit~ <misfit61nz@hooya.com.au> wrote:
>>>> <SNIP>
>>>>> Does anyone know if ATMA or PlugY or that runeword patch work with
>>>>> 1.09 Gemstone? It'd be nice to have the best of all worlds. :-)
>>>>> --
>>>>> Shaun.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, It certainly does. I've been using it for years. PlugY that is.
>>>> I am using version 7.01b. I think I have the installer here or at
>>>> home, if you'd like a copy.
>>>
>>> Hi Greg. Thanks for the reply. So you're using Gemstone 1.09d and
>>> PlugY
>>> 7.01b together? (Just want to be sure before I hose my install, for
>>> some reason Windows XP won't let me back up the install folder,
>>> tells me either I don't have permission (I'm admin) or it's in use
>>> (it's not when I try). So... I just want to be sure that it's not
>>> going to ruin all my hard play. <g>
>>>
>>> Oh, it seems that I have PlugY versions 7.01b and 8.0 already,
>>> thanks heaps for the offer. I used to have a thing about archiving
>>> every D2 mod I could find (which turned out to be fortunate for a
>>> few who've wanted Gemstone).
>>>
>>> Not that I doubt you, I just want to be sure (to be sure) that we're
>>> on the same page. ;-)
>>
>> I am indeed running WinXP SP2 Plus all patches. (I'm giving SP3 some
>> time to mature... %-)
>
>LOL! Sounds like we are alike in a few ways. I have installed SP3 
>(downloaded the full install ISO) on a couple of my older, fully imaged 
>machines to test it but have kept it off my main machine. The main reason 
>I've installed it on these other machines is that they are older. (Tualatin 
>Celerons, ~384 - 512 MB SDRAM) I've heard that SP3 is actually a first for 
>MS, an "upgrade" that actually speeds up the OS. I can't confirm as I use 
>those machines so rarely. However, it hasn't slowed them down.
>
>> LoD v1.09d, Gemstone 1.5 and PlugY 7.01b on two
>> separate systems. If you'd like, I can send you the splash screen to
>> prove it. ;-) The PlugY text overwrites the Gemstone version label a
>> bit. PlugY should not step on your D2 install because it overwrites
>> nothing. I don't recall any installation gotchas, but this was a few
>> years ago... Hmmm. Wait a minute. I just did this again when I got my
>> crap-top, and it went quite smoothly there too.
>>
>> Also, PlugY won't run if you don't launch the plugy.exe instead of
>> Diablo II.exe, so there should be no real possibility of this
>> screwing things up, barring PEBKAC issues and random acts of
>> God^H^H^HMicrosoft. Having said that, if you run into trouble, I'd be
>> happy to try to assist you, but I'm generally only reading news in
>> the middle of your night, since I'm in NY, USA and reading USENET
>> from work.
>
>Thanks again for your reply Greg. I have successfully set up PlugY (7.01b, 
>seems I have three versions (7.00, 7.01b and 8.00) stored locally. <g>) on 
>my main machine, thanks for the boost that gave me the confidence to do it.
>
>*However*, I've run into a problem last night on a second machine that I'm 
>trying to use to mule* items from. I copied the same install directory and 
>whenever I try to create a game I get an error. Now I see it it's the same 
>error I got way back when I first tried to use PlugY and the reason I wasn't 
>using it until now.
>
>Whenever I start a game (Other multiplayer, TCP/IP as I have a flatmate and 
>often we play together. Incidently part of the reason for going back to 
>Gemstone and away from cattlenet, people to play with, or lack thereof). 
>Anyway, whenever I try to start or enter a game on the second computer I 
>get:
>
>Diablo 2 Error
>Location : D2Hell\SRC\Archive.cpp line #59
>Expression : D:\Program Files\Diablo II S2\PlugY\statsinterface.txt.
>
>I haven't installed on my flattie's PC yet as I wanted to make sure all was 
>well first.
>
>Now, I guess I should mention a peculiarity of my installs. Between my 
>flamate and myself we have four sets of D2 amd four LoD discs. Four complete 
>keysets so we could mule, co-op play, self-rush etc. on battlenet. The four 
>installs are backed up and called "Diablo II S1", "Diablo II S2" etc. It's 
>easir that way than digging out the documentation over which keys are used 
>with which others to avoid conflicts on Bnuts. (It's happened, it was a 
>frustratiing day, re-installing.. until I found "ShowCDKey".)
>
>When machines are rebuilt, reformatted or whatever no disc-shuffling is 
>needed. The archived install directory is copied from the server and an 
>image of the LoD disk is mounted with DaemonTools. Make a shortcut of the 
>game.exe to the desktop (run vidtest if needed) and Bob's your uncle.
>
>For the Gemstone 1.09d install, the other day I bit the bullet and did an 
>install from the discs (to Program Files\Diablo II), dug up the 1.09d patch 
>then swapped dlls for the Gemstone version. Once that was done I backed up 
>*that* install as well so I wouldn't have to go through it again. I remeber 
>for 5 years back when I only had one disk-set that, for a local TCP/IP game, 
>keyset numbers aren't important.
>
>The peculiarity is that, although I'm playing from the second install 
>directory, the character files are saved to the 1.11b install directory 
>"save" folder rather than the save folder in the install directory I'm 
>starting the .exe from. Strange, I can only assume that it's following a 
>registry entry's path directions. <shrug> I'm not that up on Windows 
>registry.
>
>I copied the Gemstone image to my flatties machine and we started a game. 
>All was well. It was so refreshing to play without the lag problems that 
>have plagued us, playing as we are on US West for New Zealand.
>
>LOL. A side note: The day before yesterday I read a web article about how 
>difficult it is to get 'users' to backup their computers. The author said 
>"It's different for some, we are geeks, it simply wouldn't occur to us to 
>NOT back up, it's in our blood." I laughed and thought "How true!".
>
>Little did I know that, less than 24 hours later, I'd be going through my 
>old CDRs and that I'd find a backup of my Gemstone 1.09d/1.5 playing 
>characters and mules from early '03! Unfortunately it seems that I'm not an 
>uber-geek as the backup wasn't the ultimate pinnacle reached by my 
>characters. In the backup my strafer is only lvl 96, I actually got her up 
>to lvl 98 (and found *lots* more goodies in the process as she was mainly 
>MFing).
>
>Well, it seems that this post can now be relegated to the "information" pile 
>rather than the "need information" one. I have solved the problem whilst 
>writing about it. I guess sometimes it pays to go through it with a friend. 
>;-)
>
>As the save path seems to be dictated by the registry to the previous 
>install I tried copying the PlugY folder to that install as well. Just the 
>folder, not the .exe, .dll or .ini. That worked! I now have PlugY 7.01b 
>working with Gemstone 1.5 on LoD 1.09d on that computer too. I've loaded all 
>my old characters to that machine and will plunder them and fill my new, 
>massive stash with the goodies. (I have every rune, multiple times for the 
>most part. The only exception is ZOD, I only have one.)
>
>(I'd previously tried to enter my PlugY game with the other computer running 
>rom the Gemstone Diablo II .exe to see if I could transfer goodies that way 
>and got the message: "Unable to enter game, generic bad file".)
>
>I'm at a loss to know why things went differently on the two machines. Both 
>have two Diablo II installs (with the 1.11b version named differently but 
>pre-existing) in the same Progam Files directory. On my main machine, the 
>one character I've created *was* stored in the original 1.11b save folder. 
>On installing PlugY (and halfway through writing this) I noticed that the 
>character files were now in the correct directory. That promprted me to copy 
>the char files on the other machine to the other directory too. That didn't 
>work but copying the PlugY folder the other way did. Strange! It's things 
>like this that stop me from being a Windows guru. <g>
>
>Anyway, thanks for leanding an ear. That did the trick. Now I've just got to 
>remember how to build characters in 1.09d style after having played 1.10 and 
>1.11 for many years.
>
>Cheers,
>-- 
>Shaun. 
>
>

I am glad that I could help. Having read through this all twice now, I'm still
not entirely sure that you've got everything working satisfactorily, but I
think you do. I do know that D2 and in fact many Windows apps will clean up
their registry configuration if they find themselves installed differently than
they expected to be. I don't play around with my machines too much, because
they are shared by less technical people. (I've been a professional programmer
and sysadmin for 24 years now.) And since I actually have 2 engineering
degrees, I am actually capable of using screwdrivers and soldering irons. :-D
But I digress... I know that I have transplanted the disk with my d2 install
across several machines and configurations, since it used to boot my NT4
Workstation at home before becoming the secondary drive on my XP box, and the
install happily cleaned up after itself and went on working.

I've never done 2 versions of D2 on 1 machine yet, since I never upgraded to
1.10+ because of gemstone. I'll have to see how that goes once our illustrious
colleague ports Gemstone to 1.11. I'd really love to see what you've all been
talking about for these years.

I'm also glad that I found a way to give something back to the group after all
this time.

	-Greg

-- 
Greg Vilardi, Host: Scanner Cinema East            E-mail:vilardi@panix.com
USnail: 354 Indian Head Rd|Recurrent Software Solutions| Home:(631)864-1310
Commack, NY 11725         |Melville, NY 11747      | Work:(631)752-2701x240
sig Version 0.52(beta release)               I thought, I wrote, I posted.